What’s it like cycling to Laggan from Newtonmore? I understand it’s about 7 miles, but is that 7 easy miles or hellishly hilly miles that are likely to break you on returning from a blast round the trails?

I’m looking at riding the Gaick Pass from Blair Atholl to Kingussie on Thursday, then staying in a hostel on Newtonmore. For Friday a loop round Laggan before a late train home would round it off nicely.

Or would it be more advisable to push on to Laggan and stay in the hostel there, leaving fresh(er) legs for Wolftrax?

I reckon it’s nearer 10 miles than 7 but the main A86 is pretty much flat. Doesn’t carry a huge amount of traffic so wouldn’t be that unpleasant to ride on (considering its status as a Primary Route).

A nicer route that isn’t much longer would be to go the Sustrans route down the B9150, onto the offroad path to the Glentruim road and pick up the A889 for a mile or two.

There’s a cyclepath on the S side of the A86 after the junction with the A889 at Drumgask Farm – not sure how you get onto it but it certainly runs all the way to Wolftrax.

Its pretty mellow, no real hills – but watch out for the timber lorries they do tend to take up most of the road! Depends how much/fast you want to do? You can blast all three major loops (new red, old red, black) in an hour and a half at full on pace or mosey around with a break for coffee per lap, still only 2.5 – 3 hrs riding. But 7 miles tacked on the start / end wouldn’t kill yer!

Excellent, thanks for the info guys!

I’ve just noticed that Dalwhinnie station is close too – so another option when getting the train home. Same again: does anyone know what the road from Laggan to Dalwhinnie is like?!

That’s a MUCH hillier cycle….

Oh- and not many trains stop there.

As above, dead easy, the tracks at Laggan are short so you can take as much as you want before heading round. There are a couple of more direct off road options to Dalwhinnie too (pretty obvious on the map) but I can’t vouch for the shorter options. If you have the time, a few laps of Laggan then heading out towards Loch Pattack and round Ben Alder is a grand day out and links to Dalwhinnie pretty straightforwardly. Kenny Wilson’s book has a route (or 2?) that would be worth checking and modifying if that appealed.

[edit- Druidh much hillier?? Hardly. A bit undulating as opposed to flat, but nowt special]

Opps – my bad. Just checked on Anquet, and it’s actually slightly less climbing taking the road to Dalwhinnie. I guess it just all comes at once. Dalwhinnie is also 1km nearer than Newtonmore.

Achh damn train was fully booked for bikes 🙁

So now I’m doing Gaick pass on Thursday from Blair Atholl to Kingussie then back home.

BUT I have the train booked from Aviemore on the way back (it was actually cheaper than Kingussie) so if we’re fit and fast we’ll be able to carry on and get a loop round Rothiemurchus before the train home.

Pity, the off road route via loch erict and loch pattack from Dalwhinnie is a beautiful (although non technical) crossing and well worth doing. Dont be tempted into the single track route marked on the OS maps that runs east west – it isn’t there anymore. I havent done it but I believe the Glen Banchor route to the north is good and would avoid the tarmac